CBC Health News

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, its effects live on and continue to have an impact on the health of Canadians. Here's a look back at some of them, including the effectiveness of emergency measures, long-term care deaths, the increasing distrust in public health, mRNA vaccine development and how we're preparing for the next pandemic.

It may seem counterintuitive, but hospital emergency rooms can be hazardous to the health of elderly patients. The chaotic environment can cause delirium and deconditioning to set in fast, and some patients never leave the hospital again. An innovative team at St. Mary's Hospital in Montreal is helping to prevent that from happening.

In its statement of defence, the health authority says former CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos was terminated because of her 'own inadequacies' in performing her job.

In response to an Ontario-wide measles outbreak, with many cases near Brantford, Grand Erie, Hamilton and other public health units have expanded vaccinations to include infants as young as six months. 

The province's chief medical officer of health is urging Ontarians to make sure they are immunized against the measles amid the most severe outbreak in the province in more than a decade.

More Alberta seniors are now eligible for provincially funded RSV vaccines. All Albertans 70 and over are now eligible.

An advocate for New Brunswickers suffering from unexplained neurological symptoms says a letter obtained by CBC News suggests Health Minister Dr. John Dornan wasn't truthful about his role in the removal of a Moncton neurologist from his post at the clinic treating many of the patients.

Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is alleging the former CEO of Alberta Health Services was unwilling to implement the government’s plan to break up the health authority, and made “incendiary and inaccurate allegations about political intrigue and impropriety” before she was fired in January. 

Saskatoon's Prairie Harm Reduction is asking for the province to get boots on the ground after a week with dozens of overdoses.

A confidential memo from the head of the Alberta Medical Association says government seeks cuts to more than 800 physician billing codes to save $400 million. The health ministry says government spending on physicians has risen by $1 billion since 2022-23

From finishing high school to caring for patients in the hospital, here’s how five people navigated the beginning of the pandemic.

The Homalco Nation is the third Indigenous group on Vancouver Island to declare a state of emergency due to the toxic drug crisis and has joined calls for federal and provincial government leaders to take urgent action and provide resources to address these issues.

Ontario is seeing a massive surge in measles cases as an ongoing outbreak spreads among unvaccinated people. Public Health Ontario is reporting 372 total cases since an outbreak began in late October, a jump of 195 cases since the agency's last report on Feb. 27.

Advocacy organizations won't appeal an Ontario court's decision to dismiss their Charter challenge of the province's long-term care (LTC) law, which allows hospitals to move people into homes they didn't choose or be charged $400 a day to remain in hospital.

After CBC Toronto was first to report on Dr. Esther Park's office where Toronto Public Health said earlier this month that cleaning protocols were not being followed, several patients have come forward to share their negative encounters with Park, many expressing their frustration that their voices weren't being heard.

The guidance from Dr. Daniel Vigo, B.C.'s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, is aimed at helping clinicians and others decide when involuntary admission is appropriate for people with both mental-health and substance-use disorders.

Dr. Alex Wong became well-known during the COVID-19 pandemic, doing multiple interviews locally and nationally, but his work led to his body breaking down.

Two people died a little over an hour apart in Victoria on Monday, Victoria police and the B.C. Coroners Service have confirmed

The province says it is also celebrating the recruitment of 1,001 new family doctors in two years under a new payment model.